B5403 Ver 2 Finished

Truthfully these are good.Most of us, me included prefer a tighter jean. But my fabric has no stretch. To be able to sit and move I must have additional ease– in all the right places.

Now for the rest of the story, I’m not over whelming in my applause for the pattern. I truly dislike the curved yoke. More accurately, I wanted a traditional jean shape but for non-stretch denim, twill, corduroy and similar fabrics. I’m coming close to having a well fitted pattern but only because I’ve worked hard and YES this pattern taught me something new.

If you will recall, the first version was entirely too tight. I could not let the seams out far enough. I was intrigued by the initial fit and continued to work with the pattern by adding 1″ to the side seams. This made for a hideously large pant:
Hideously large everywhere except the back crotch which absolutely cute in-between my cheeks almost revealing the woman parts. I began by taking in both sides seams an additional 1/2″. The pant fit at the waistline but was odd otherwise. I pulled out my last version of Tj906. I still have problems around the knees with TJ906 and have not been able to figure out why. Nonetheless the TJ906 crotch is comfortable and looks the way I like a crotch to look. (Note: I prefer the unib utt over two-puppies-playing-under-the-blanket look.) I traced the crotch of Tj906 onto the fabric. There is a huge difference between the two crotches. Almost 2″ in width and 1″ in depth. For that reason, I decided to scoop the crotch in increments.

I started noticing camel-toe syndrome developing. WTF? That has not been apparent any in previous fitting with this pattern. Was this a result of scooping the back crotch? I noticed from the beginning that the sides were very outward curved. The hip curvature is obvious even on the tissue. I had assume this extra curvature was needed because of the slimmer legs and fuller body of the plus sized woman, i.e. ME! I had expected that scooping the crotch would require some ease from the sides and those flaps would decrease. Not so. I really did have Micky Mouse ears but at thigh level.

I did a little experimenting in the mirror and discovered that I could lift the side seams and remove the camel toe. It took two bastings to remove enough (1″) and at that point the Mickey Mouse ears were also just under hip level. My final alteration was to pin, measure and remove the extra curve from the side seam. I removed an equal amount of ease from both front and back. I suspect I should have removed more from the front because my pan ty line is starting to become visible.

My alterations were really at the point of being gross, large, excessively large at this point. So I finished the pant, including closure and took final photos. I know I was not really careful with the final seaming which seems to have reintroduced some of the camel-toe and back diagonal wrinkles. But The bank-line photos

tell me that it’s OK to wear this pair of pants in public, just be sure to wear a long top.

I’ve transferred the changes back to the tissue. I know that means making one more pair B5403 before working on anything else. But I am exceptionally pleased with myself. I learned two things:

I need to copy the crotch from TJ906 to all pant patterns and

when the front starts developing folds around the v-j-j lift the sides

When I finish B5403, I’m going to work with Tj906. I stopped because I couldn’t figure out what was happening around the knees. Now I know it’s a matter of lifting the side seams. Now, that’s not everybody’s solution. In fact the experts are going to tell you I’m ridiculous. Here’s the thing: I’m fitting my body. Not thousands of people just little ol’ me and little ol’ me requires some tweaks that others don’t. I think what has happened is that my sides are flatter/straighter than is expected on a pear-shaped figure. My curvature seems to be in front over my tummy and in back over my tush. My sides are pretty straight. I don’t have a flat rear end. It is high and large. The normal crotch curve begins too late. By scooping towards the back and bottom, the curve becomes long enough and wide enough in the right places to slide up and over my tush. Which then pulls that mess of wrinkles behind my leg up and into the correct alignment.

Finally the $64K questions: Would I make this again and do I recommend it to others? Well yes I will make it at least once more to finish the fitting. However I prefer a more classic jean pattern. As far as anyone else, I can say it is well drafted. The pieces all fit together perfectly–just mark and match the notches. It has a shallow U-shaped crotch but very importantly, Connie Crawford has included instructions for adapting the crotch. Finally, it’s much more reasonable for the womanly shaped to use this pattern than to choose something drafted for “standard” sizes or “youthful” figures. I certainly got a lot further in my jeans fitting quest through using this pattern. I guess that’s a “Yes”.